Recent reports suggest Argentina is looking to make a renewed bid to gain control of the Falkland Islands, as Britain pushes forward with its Brexit plans.
Rogelio Frigerio, the Minister of Interior Affairs, said: “We will never cease to claim what belongs to us. Not one single day of our lives are we going to let our arms down.
“Let these 35 years help us look to the future and find intelligent paths to advance in our legitimate claim over the Islands’ sovereignty.”
While the islanders have remained staunchly in favour of remaining British, they did not back Brexit in last June’s referendum.
The Argentinian MP said: “We are here to confirm our conviction that some day we will stop thinking of our Islands as some distant dream, and so that the community continues to sustain a standing live homage to the heroes of the motherland”.
Frigerio made the comments at the official main event of the 35th anniversary of the beginning of the 1982 conflict with the UK.
The South American nation invaded the British overseas territory on April 2, 1982, which led to a two-month military conflict between the UK and Argentina.
The bitter clash resulted in 649 Argentinian deaths and 255 British servicemen, with the UK retaining the territory.
In addition, Frigerio pointed out that “law, geography, history, the past, present and future support our sovereignty claim of the Islands”, and “we will return to our Islands following the path that leads the nations of the world: dialogue, truth, the law and justice”.
The European Union is the main destination for the archipelago’s exports, mostly fish, which are worth about £178million a year.
An estimated 70 per cent of the Falklands’ GDP is believed to rely on access to the EU market.
In the past the countries in the EU have backed Britain’s right to sovereignty of the islands but that support could weaken after Brexit.
